The Python Apprentice

Assigning one reference to another

When we assign from one variable to another, what we're really doing is assigning from one object reference to another object reference, so that both references then refer to the same object. For example, let's assign our existing variable x to a new variable y:

>>> y = x

That gives us this resulting reference-object diagram:

Figure 4.3: Assign the existing name 'x' to the name 'y'

Now both references refer to the same object. We now reassign x to another new integer:

>>> x = 3000

Doing this gives us a reference-object diagram showing our two references and our two objects:

Figure 4.4: Assign a new integer ...